Parliament cheer for Harrogate beer

Pictured are Andrew Jones, left, and Simon Theakston at the Commons reception (s)

Harrogate and Knaresborough MP Andrew Jones celebrated Yorkshire’s brewing industry in the House of Commons last Thursday.

Mr Jones and 34 other MPs met with key figures in the trade at the Yorkshire Beer and Pub Association’s inaugural parliamentary reception.

Senior figures from the Treasury also attended to hear the brewing trade’s concerns at first hand.

Mr Jones said: “A successful brewing industry is critical to the future of community pubs. In my own Harrogate and Knaresborough constituency alone, the sector employs 1,573 people and contributes £40m to the local economy with 86 pubs and three breweries.

“Yorkshire MPs across all parties have helped spearhead the campaign against the beer duty escalator– with an historic beer duty cut and an ending of the beer duty escalator announced in the last budget.

“The chancellor’s business rates reforms announced in the Autumn Statement will also benefit 7,200 pubs in Yorkshire and the North East. Parliamentarians must continue to support the sector.”

Harrogate man, chairman of the Association and executive director of Theakstons Brewery, Simon Theakston, spoke on the specific benefits that the Yorkshire brewing sector brings to the nation’s economy.

He also spoke of the ways in which politicians can support the industry by backing the British Beer and Pub Association’s (BBPA) campaign to freeze beer tax in the next budget.

Mr Theakston said: “We called on MPs to back the BBPA campaign for a freeze on beer duty in this year’s budget and we very much hope they take heed of our messages, pick up their pens and write to the chancellor as soon as possible.”

At the reception parliamentarians were treated to samples of world famous Yorkshire beers, such as Timothy Taylor’s Landlord, Theakston’s Old Peculier, Black Sheep Bitter, Daleside Crackshot, and Little Valley Brewery’s Python IPA.

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